# Multimedia 

Multimedia 

---

- [Podcasts](/podcasts)
- [Cato Video](/multimedia/cato-video)
- [Video Series](/search/category/video-series)
- [Events](/multimedia/events)

[ 

Download Episode 

](https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5e3db1b9659d595770f8b9b0/1644330903500-8dd42e3dd80de151879583732fbbde46.mp3)Subscribe:

[ 

Apple Podcasts 

](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/power-problems/id1282100393) [ 

Spotify 

](https://open.spotify.com/show/7LrC4meqQkPvzFqP9PMwkS) 

Power Problems • February 8, 2022 

# Too Many Secrets: How to Fix Overclassification 

Should the United States classify as much information as it does? Yale Law School professor Oona A. Hathaway explains how the U.S. government overclassifies information, why incentives generate more secrecy, the threat to democracy this system poses, and what to do about it.

**Show Notes**

- [Oona Hathaway bio](https://law.yale.edu/oona-hathaway)
- Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro, *[Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World](https://www.amazon.com/Internationalists-Radical-Outlaw-Remade-World/dp/1501109871)* (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018).
- Oona A. Hathaway, “[Keeping the Wrong Secrets: How Washington Misses the Real Security Threat](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-12-07/hacking-cybersecurity-keeping-wrong-secrets?utm_source=twitter_posts&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tw_daily_soc),” *Foreign Affairs* 101, no. 1 (January/​February 2022).
- Oona A. Hathaway, “[Secrecy’s End](https://minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/3-Hathaway_MLR.pdf),” *Minnesota Law Review* 106 (2021): pp. 691–800.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

![Oona Hathaway](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-01/oona-hathaway.jpg?itok=NHmjS3E0) 

##### Oona A. Hathaway 

Professor of International Law, Yale University

![John Glaser](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/John%20Glaser.jpg?itok=-uvxR8zG) 

##### John Glaser 

Host, Power Problems Podcast

[ 

](https://twitter.com/jwcglaser)